Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

With an article on the Vox AC-4 in the current Vintage Guitar Magazine, I'm hoping it may be a pre-cursor to Vox re-issuing this amp. I'll assume not, though. So if I can't have a Vox AC-4, what other low watt amps are making it happen right now? I'm thinking pretty much "under" 15 watts.

Gibson GA-5 (5W)
BadCat Alley Cat (7.5W)
AC-4 clones

All solid

I liked my Blackheart Little Giant at 5 and 3 watts.

Although I have not played a Ric through it, I am really enjoying my Zinky Velveteen 13 watts. It has a 12AX7 pre-amp and a 5881/6L6 output, so different from the ones mentioned above. It is very clean until you hit the power tubes hard, so I am hoping my incoming 3302/6 FG will sounds nice through it.

All this low watt talk reminds me of my Qrp days of 2-way radio.

I love my old Princeton Reverb. Fender has just come out with a RI of it.

Git'cha seff sumthin' you-neek.

I have a friend who raves about his Mini-Z. He had it aboard ship during his most recent tour of the Persian Gulf.

wmthor wrote:I have a friend who raves about his Mini-Z. He had it aboard ship during his most recent tour of the Persian Gulf.

Although if he wants a combo, he'll have to go used. The Mini-Z is made only in a head now.

But yeah, it sounds pretty good: http://www.drzamps.com/miniz_head.html (Sound clips at the bottom of page).

charlyg wrote:I liked my Blackheart Little Giant at 5 and 3 watts.

i have been thinking about picking one of them up but i might wait for the blackheart 15 watt

rkbsound wrote:With an article on the Vox AC-4 in the current Vintage Guitar Magazine, I'm hoping it may be a pre-cursor to Vox re-issuing this amp. I'll assume not, though. So if I can't have a Vox AC-4, what other low watt amps are making it happen right now? I'm thinking pretty much "under" 15 watts.

I hope they don't make a cheap version and charge a fortune for it. Fellow forum member Chris B had a HW clone built for him at a reasonable price, though he did supply the speaker and cab himself: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=381049&p=426249&hi ... by#p426249

Korg Vox ought to be able to build and sell a HW en masse for not a whole lot more, especially since they're building them in China

The Carr Mercury. 8 watts maximum, dialable down to 2w, 1/2w, and 1/10w with no tone change! I've done entire records with this amp being the only thing used, with all sorts of sounds. It has a beautiful reverb, too, and it's really simple. They now make a super-tiny one with a 10" speaker. Mine has the 12" speaker, which I like. Of course, it is an expensive boutique amp, but shockingly good. You can also play it on stage and it's loud enough.

I have a Hughes and Kettner Electric Blue 15w amp that I got to record with, and it's nice!! I was surprised at how good it sounds.

blue330 wrote:... but shockingly good ...

Is that good when talking about a device that runs off electricity?

With regard to the Fender Princeton Reverb Reissue, I don't like Fender amps that lack the Middle tone control ... they just don't let the harmonics fill out, IMO.

doctorwho wrote:

blue330 wrote:With regard to the Fender Princeton Reverb Reissue, I don't like Fender amps that lack the Middle tone control ... they just don't let the harmonics fill out, IMO.

But all the BF/SF amps that "don't have a mid control" DO have one - it's simply a fixed resistor inside instead of a pot. The "mid control" is pre-set at about 8. There is no difference in basic circuit between an amp "with" the mid control and one "without". The Princeton Reverb is one of these amps.

Of course, if you normally set your mid control a lot lower (especially if it's below halfway) there will be a fair difference in tone, but it has nothing to do with harmonics, it's simply that the amp with "no mid control" has more mids.

It's a very easy mod to fit one of these amps with a mid control, either a trimmer inside if you just want to change it to some other setting and leave it like that, or by fitting a pot somewhere - which can be done without drilling the amp if you use something like the second input jack. Simplest of all is to convert the bass control into a Vox-type 'combined bass and mid', which only requires rewiring the bass pot and doesn't need any new components, but obviously gives slightly less versatility since there are some combinations you can't get.

Some of the older Tweed amps with no mid control really don't have one, the circuit is quite different.

By the way, I hope the new AC-4 is a new design and not a reissue of the 60s one, which was pretty weak-sounding... although a lot of the problem was the tiny (or even tinny!) speaker.